West athletes pitch in to harvest for the Food Bank

The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan needed a little help.

This year produced a bumper crop of squash, and there were thousands of them sitting in the fields of the Wiegand Farm in Almont with no one to harvest them.

Athletes at Lapeer West answered the challenge, and 143 Lapeer West athletes spent a good part of the day Tuesday collecting the remaining vegetables for donation to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

The gleaning is part of the high school’s participation in the Channel 12 Spirit Squad which will be at the school Friday for a live broadcast at 5 a.m.

"They're gathering. They're collecting. There's a spirit and excitement about it," West Athletic Director Mary Haslinger told a reporter from WJRT-TV Channel 12.

"You get to be with all your friends and help the poor," added senior Beau Allen.
"I put out a call to all of my athletes, and 143 of them are here today," Haslinger said.

The 35-acre field was owned by George Wiegand, who died this spring. His daughter Cheryl Wiegand Stanek told the television reporter he would approve of the donation. "I just believe this is a gift from my dad from heaven to feed the poor. He always cared for the poor. He gave so much to the poor."

"Every week we're feeding close to 50,000 to 60,000 people. Right now in the fall, with the harvest, you can make squash soup. There are any number of ways the clients are going to use it. It's nice to have fresh produce," said Tracy Fowler-Johnson from the Food Bank.

"We're going to feed a lot of people who couldn't get food anywhere else," senior Jalen Houston told ABC12's Randy Conat.


To view the TV report of the Lapeer West gleaners, go to:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7745806

Lapeer East collects more than 40,000 pounds of food for Food Bank of Eastern Michigan

Cash donations of about $4,000 and non-perishable food donations of 3,000 pounds for the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan at a Channel 12 School Spirit event Friday, April 30, put Lapeer East High School in the running for the “Spirit Cup.”

Each Friday, the television station sends a crew to an area high school to feature on the morning newscast. As part of the program students are asked to bring a donation of food or cash to the event for the Food Bank.

More than 400 students, including a few who camped out overnight, attended the 4 a.m. event in the Lapeer East High School gym.

“I’m proud of our students and the effort they put behind making this food drive a success,” said East Principal Kelly Paige. “We had a lot of fun and helped meet a tremendous need at this time in our community.”

Each $1 raised buys 9 pounds of food at the Food Bank, making the total poundage of the East event about 41,000 pounds. The total was more than double what the school collected in 2009, said Marc Jacobson, Channel 12 reporter.

The winner of the “Spirit Cup” event will be announced later in May. See previous post for photos and link to Channel 12 video.

Lapeer East students up early to support Food Bank of Eastern Michigan

About 400 Lapeer East High School students showed up at 4 a.m. to fill the gymnasium with bodies, spirit, food and donations to assist the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. Between cash and food donations the students and Lapeer East High School donated more than 33,000 pounds of food to the Food Bank, nearly double the amount from last year's event.

Talent show winners and the East teachers "Mock Rock" group warmed up the crowd for the television show.

The edited 7-minute version can be found here at the Channel 12 website.

Photos of the event can be found at the District photo gallery.

ABC 12 video on Spirit Cup now available

The video of the coverage of the award ceremony for the Spirit Cup is now up on the website of WJRT-TV, Channel 12.

Lapeer East High School students honored for Spirit Cup food donation efforts

It was an exciting morning as Lapeer East High School was honored with the top 5 schools in the ABC 12 School Spirit Cup Challenge.

Lapeer East, which led the competition for several weeks after collecting 17,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan ended up in fourth place.

It was Lapeer East that set the bar very high for the later schools.

Students from East were interviewed and will likely be shown on the news this afternoon. So far there is no link on the Channel 12’s website, but we’ll keep watching and put it up here when it does. It is now available here.